Is female masturbation intrinsically disordered?

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You don’t need to be religious to know TV, junk food, alcohol, sex, shopping, etc. can be bad if done excessively. That’s common sense and most people would agree those things can be done in unhealthy ways or amounts. Doesn’t make them intrinsically bad. Seems the same with masturbation.

There is no common sense in saying masturbation is bad(especially female masturbation) so I don’t think that is based in natural law. Of course done in excess(most things done in excess become unhealthy) it could be a problem.

Even if you see it from a religious perspective the only thing in the Bible that could be used is Onan spilling his seed or Jesus saying lusting is the same as committing adultery. You don’t need to lust to masturbate- it’s entirely possible to have physical stimulation without fantasies or lust for some women. So then why is it bad apart from the Church saying it is?
 
Yes, you don’t have to be a philosopher to see that the reproductive system has the purpose of reproducing (it’s in the name)
 
Well pleasure is certainly part of it otherwise God wouldn’t have made it so pleasurable. And the part of a woman that usually feels the most pleasurable does not play a role in reproduction at all. Why would God make the clitoris, and make it so sensitive and capable of pleasure if he intended only sex that results in reproduction?
 
rosejmj said:
So then why is it bad apart from the Church saying it is?
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Sex is meant to be the way in which humans procreate but it’s also meant to deepen the bond of unitive love between husband and wife. Sexual pleasure exists for the purpose of enhancing the unitive aspect of the marital act. Any attempt to experience this while not experiencing the other aspects of the act is intrinsically disordered. Period. No exceptions, no ifs, ands, or buts. It’s wrong.
 
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rosejmj said:
Why would God make the clitoris, and make it so sensitive and capable of pleasure if he intended only sex that results in reproduction?
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It’s placement is also sub-optimal for pleasure. A little mystifying.
 
Because you’re trying to experience something meant to unite husband and wife without a husband or a wife.
 
The sexual function isn’t unlike any of the necessary functions in our body. There is pleasure involved in eating, both in that something can taste good and that it removes the state of hunger from us. Both are good, but we don’t necessarily need something to taste good- that’s just a bonus and an incentive.

Sex has an end: procreation. This biological purpose can’t ever be separated from the act of sex, inasmuch as the sperm and egg cells are designed to unite, and even if this end is frustrated, the cells don’t have their purpose “suspended”. Even in masturbation, the cells are still striving- until their death- to do their job.

Sex also has a unitive purpose. This is unrelated to the purpose of the sperm and egg cells, but the dopamine released during sex causes pleasure, and as long as both man and woman experience it, it can be considered to be unitive.

Masturbation doesn’t allow for either of these ends to be achieved. One person feels physical pleasure, but it is much like a person who chooses to overeat (and somehow society can recognize the self destruction overeating causes, but not this). The individual has long since satisfied their hunger, so what’s left but to “satisfy” the palate?

Masturbation can’t even be considered morally neutral (like the Passions of St. Thomas would be). It’s a disordered act. Not only does it seek to disrupt the biological end of sex, but it also removes the unitive aspect of the act by seeking only the pleasure of self.
 
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